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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

Well guys , I am very new to linux scene and for that matter to Ubuntu , I didnt even know what linux was I tried many time to understand it but no luck there were so many that is why ( unlike the windows ) but one day I had enough of windows ( vista ) and I decided to look for linux I came in this website who helped me and made me understand what linux is ( great job with the pictures as well for ignorants like myself ) first I tried Damn Small Linux ( but wasnt for me I decided ) so I downloaded Ubuntu based on look of the picture i saw n net didnt know nothing whatsoever about it,burned the iso and then it went all on its own it was DEAD EASY TO INSTALL even tho I was new to it it felt like I knew it for years so easy and practical and so many programs as well and all FREEEEEE , then I got amazed of Linuz and so far I tried Mandriva Suse and Red Hat just for the fun of it is fun when you use Linux I swear I wouldnt be writting this nealry 3 am if I didnt realy like this OS,I recomended to Bill Gates to use it just so he can see how embarrasing windows A PAID OS is compared to Linux who is FREE ABOVE ALL but even if I had to pay ID DEFENATELY PAY FOR UBUNTU RATHER THEN VISTA OR XP so people get your Linux going .

This distro installs lightning fast, everything works out of the box. The video drivers are easily installed but not there by default, same can be said of the MP3 and DVD codecs. Ubuntu compromised on this issue of &quot;non free&quot; they provide a simple way of adding the &quot;non free&quot; stuff without actually installing anything this is a lesson Fedora could learn from ubuntu and an excellent solution to this problem this was very well thought out and very well done. I have never used a distro that really worked out of the box for real. There is literally nothing wrong with Ubuntu. It is so good that if you use it there is no challenge left to Linux. These guys thought of everything. I cannot say enough good things about it. The hardware detection is amazing no matter what I plug into my usb ports it detects it and uses it with no troubles, I tried cameras, handy cam, joysticks, pen drives of several types and memory card readers. Ubuntu even detected my home network and configured a printer on the network for use with no input from me. There is no current distro or operating system that even approaches the quality of ubuntu, it is light years ahead of any other Linux distro the only thing that compares is maybe Mac OS X. They will even snail mail you some copy's of the distro for FREE they don't even charge postage. There is no reason to use any other distro and if you do use anything else your missing out on a lot.

Excellent package list, easy to work with, popular distro therefore lots of advice available

Cons:

LVM, 64-bit

Having trashed my pc more times than I care to remember over the last 4 or 5 years installing different flavors of Linux as they were released in order to find the perfect one for me, I finally arrived at Ubuntu 7.10.
I'd used Ubuntu years ago but didn't much care for it, so I wasn't really too exited in trying the latest release but decided to give it a go. I'm so glad I did. I take back everything I ever said. It appears to be a mature distro that has something for everyone.
The only two criticisms are that there are various bits of the 64-bit version that still don't seem to have as much support as you would expect by now, and the lack of a proper logical volume manager built into the install.
For instance, I recently tried Fedora 8, which is also very polished, and it was so easy to set up the disk partitions with logical volumes during install. Ubuntu seems to be completely missing this. I know it can be done by downloading LVM2 and configuring, but it is work that should be done at install time to make life a lot easier.
Anyway, I guess nothing in life is ever quite perfect, and it leaves something for the future releases to strive for.
All in all, Gutsy Gibbon is very impressive.

i changed to linux a few months back with Fedora 7 and had endless troubles with it (mostly coz i was noob), i found the distro cumbersome and irritating initially, until i got the hang of GNOME and basic CLI, i then fried my MB and decided to go debian which i found to be a dream after fedora, but still not quite what i was after, then after reading rave reviews about ubuntu, i decided to try it, strait out the moment i booted the live CD i was on the net wirelessly (something that had been a real issue with all other distro's) i wanted it to do more effects so automatically it downloaded the video drivers, it even has helpful hints when you go to do something in the true spirit of ubuntu, it automatically detected my onboard audio (all distro's had) my PCI wireless (RT61) and every device "Just Works", ubuntu is what microsoft have been trying to achieve since windows 95 with plug 'n' play, ubuntu even has the aeoro esk window switcher of vista, it also automatically detected my microsoft internet keyboard with all the buttons completely functional. then the install was soo easy, a few little localisation questions and your system is ready to native boot within 30mins. ubuntu has achieved great things with 7.10 'Gutsy Gibbon' i'll never go any other distro, ubuntu is exactly as the name suggests 'gutsy' and in the true spirit of 'ubuntu' easy to use and extremely helpful

As much hype as this distro gets it's amazing that you have to fiddle with it to get something that can compete with windows os on the desktop wars, There are a number of distros much better for newbies to the linux scene, Saybayon for example blows this distro out of the water, as well as Pclinuxos
If I have to spend time configuring after the install, I might as well do slackware, then at least I would be cool

Easy to use out of the box, lots of software, Compiz, the Ubuntu philosophy

Cons:

Hardware issues

Ubuntu remains my favorite Linux distribution. It's very easy to use and there is a large community for support. Lots of applications, and hardware support is always growing, but not quite there yet. I ordered the official CDs and those must have been packaged with some updates or something because I slapped them in and everything worked out of the box, including wireless. However on my other machines a lot of hardware isn't picked up, on one of them my regular network card refuses to work even though it is detected.&amp;nbsp; I will always recommend Ubuntu to new Linux users. It's a good starting place that, if it works well with your hardware, provides a solid linux operating system for you to enjoy your PC for much less than the cost of Micro$oft Windows and all the extra crap you would have to buy to make it usable.

I decided to try Ubuntu as my first Linux distribution as I had heard it was n00b friendly. Install was quick, all devices found no prob, but things didn't necessarily work perfectly out of the box. I had to get codecs, install a fix so flash video would work (and it still generally sucks), and find a better browser since the stock one, Firefox, kept crashing. But after a few adjustments things are working near seamlessly and the only problem I've had is an occaisional phantom reboot every week and a half or so.
Overall though I highly recommend Ubuntu and I wouldn't be suprised that even after I try out a few more distro's I wind up just sticking with this one.

This release continues to build upon its other releases and adds more packages to its already huge repository. Restricted drivers manager is great because I don't have to install the annoying and sometimes broken ATI drivers by hand. Other critical components such as my Intel 3945 wireless were working OUTB.

I love Add/Remove applications. Synaptic is a great tool, but filtering out general categories can be a pain. Add/Remove apps allows me to sort things out by category easily and showed me some games that I didn't know existed.

Another nifty feature is Tracker (called deskbar-applet) for Gnome (KDE has something else, but I forget what it's called). It's a search tool similar to OS X's Find utility. However, unlike Beagle which needs to index your drive for 5 minutes, Tracker doesn't need to re-create an index every time someone starts up their computer.

As for multimedia, the reason Ubuntu doesn't include it by default is due to legal reasons, not because they don't want to. Fortunately, if Ubuntu runs into a multimedia file it can't handle, it'll give out a pop-up asking you to install the necessary packages to play it. Sabayon and PCLinuxOS can include it to make the new users lives a little easier but if the law comes after them, well, good luck I say. Contrary to popular belief, adding codecs is not difficult.

Now, the question that remains: Does Ubuntu live up to the hype? I'd certainly say that it does. Go ahead, try it out and see what you think. If you run into problems, then you have the LQ and the Ubuntu Forums communities to help you out. I've used Ubuntu since 6.06 and it still is my favorite distro to use.

easy to install, most hardware is detected but not all, easy installation of software, most things work out of the box, fully customizable, user friendly, fast GUI, Powerful command line, etc...

Cons:

no multimidia out of the box, to GUI heavy, not enough choises, power options fail most time, bad error handling, and more

hello ubuntu was the 3rd distro i have every used i am only 15 still at school with a great intrest in computers, i was brough up with computers and my dad had a great intrest in linux when i was younger so he put mandrake and suse duel boot so i learn on them when i was growing up. I loved ubuntu when i tryed it on my computer it worked well with my wireless adapter and even though multimidia didnt work out of the box it only took miniuts to get it working. I stright away in the installation found it very easy but lacking in choises and advanced options, i had been used to mandrake 9.0 and some older version ware command line was mandatory when you were using it and installations ware fully user deturmend,

Ubuntu is very good for people who want a smooth transfer from windows to linux but once you get in to it there is little for people who really want to know everything possable about it, linux is a great way to learn very hands on and a case of trile and error but ubuntu takes a lot of the fun out, my wireless just worked. The software just installs, everything just happens there dose not need to be much user input the only input you need to give is clicking a button.

I love the user frienliness for about two weeks then i found i was baord and lost for things to do, even though i rate ubuntu highly and love it and i do use it as my main distro i do think they should offer a big range of choises but for the beginers let them chose default (possably make a advanced installer and a normal installer);

all said i am very happy with ubuntu and help is everyware its got brilliant users and its powerful and nice to use, its fast and when you just want things to work they do and i am just pulling out and pointing out the faults and this distro is the best ive tryed so far i would rate this a 7 because of the over prefection if it lost a bit of that it would go up to 10 yet it has to keep the user friendly ease it provides for new linux users

There are still challenges for Ubuntu, but the community forums are so-far reaching that issues like sound not working on Thinkpad laptops can easily be resolved by a minimum of forum involvement.

My Linux development workstation is on Ubuntu 7.10. I often wonder why Ubuntu is always tauted for new users, because it is Linux like Debian, Fedora, Red Hat and so on, and can be easily configured into a a robust server environment.

Unlike Red Hat, these extra components must be configured after the main installation ( I have not yet found a way to override the desktop installation to include server components), but the package management is so good, that when I typed dos2unix, the error message told me what to download.

Of all the distros I have used, Fedora, RH EL, and Ubuntu, Ubuntu is by far the easiest to configure. It is easy to get other packages installed, as well, that are not part of the Ubuntu Repositories.

There are still issues with hardware like Thinkpads, that have been around long enough that new hardware should not throw the Ubuntu install a big curve ball, and we're talking about an Ubuntu installation DVD that was created around the time the hardware was purchased.

Sound is another big issue, as well as setting things up like PDA synching.

Would you recommend the product? no | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 2

Pros:

automatic disk checking after crashes

Cons:

Least stable distro I ever used

I loved (X)Ubuntu, not blindly but happily. Feisty seemed to be a real high point, combining speed, stability, great features and ease of use and was a real step up from Dapper and Edgy. Gutsy was something I looked forward to using but after using it for a few months I ended up switching my three computers away from (X)ubuntu altogether. Two main issues:

1: It's slow. Not just a little slow but painfully slow. Even Xfce is slow with Gutsy. It needs far more memory to simply sit idle than any previous release. You need a minimum of 320 MB RAM just to use the live CD installer. I should have taken this as a warning. Probably this is fine for those people with 2 GB + of high speed RAM but not for me. I had thought all my computers were kind of reasonably OK, the lowest specced one having Pentium-M 1.6 GHz and 768 MB RAM. Gutsy stank on this laptop, it was frustratingly slow. It was even slow on my Core Duo machine. It's the only OS I've used that managed to run slow with dual core CPU and 1.5 GB RAM. Applications open at the speed of porridge going cold. Sometimes they close slowly too, or just hang. And in between opening and closing they're also slow. It's the complete package. Even Menus appear slooooooowly, like someone struggling to wake up halfway through a Sunday morning. The OS boots slowly. Mostly it doesn't shutdown properly and needs a little help from the power button on the box.

2: It's unstable. Not just an occasional application crash, but full system freezes and X crashes, no Alt+Sys Rq + R.E.I.S.U.B possible....hard reset only. This was very frequent and happened the same on 3 different PCs with different hardware (different boards, different CPUs, different graphics chips, different network adapters etc) and yes the install CDs were checksummed, as were the downloaded isos. It's perhaps the least stable OS I've used, down there with Win 98. Networking would just drop out. Application settings would mysteriously reset to defaults. Applications would just vanish while in use....crashed...gone....like a magic trick. Keyboard would spontaneously stop responding....etc etc etc.

I switched my 3 computers over to another Debian based distro (antiX with Debian unstable repos) over the last few months. Now they're all stable, use less resources, applications don't crash, network stays up, X doesn't crash, system doesn't freeze....everything just works™. Same hardware, same applications, set up basically identically but different kernel version (Mepis custom kernel) and different distro. It's amazing to me that two distros built off similar base (Debian) can be at different ends of the spectrum in terms of stability and performance.

I couldn't recommend Gutsy to anyone and I feel it's unfortunate that this has been many people's first taste of a free OS. Dapper is fine but a little long in the tooth in terms of (desktop) applications, Feisty support is only good for about another year. I think Canonical had better get it right with Hardy or they might find they dug themselves into a deep hole.

I scored it a 2 for being not only slow and unstable, but also a huge disappointment after such excellent previous Ubuntu releases. Luckily it doesn't ship with a Big Ass Analog Clock® on the desktop or it would have scored a 1.

The only thing I've found is that it does not boot quickly on my laptop. Everything else is ... wonderful. Easy to use, I got configured within minutes of installing.

There are plenty of packages to install, and it installs and stats downloading quickly -- unlike other package management tools I've tried. The restricted drivers manager has worked perfectly for me, and within minutes I had fully working 3D support.

Great little operating system -- I would highly recommend it to anyone else.

I've gone through the gammit of distros like SUSe, Fedora, Debian, Slackware, and as a student of web design, I must say that Ubuntu has brought a level of ease to the install and update process that can't compare. If we are going to win the war against major operating system providers, we need to get the novice/average user enthusiastic about it. These folks at Ubuntu have taken strides toward this.
The fact that my graphics card does not work with extreme grahpics like beryl/Compiz does not take away from Ubuntu, but rather, it takes away from ATI. They have not provided an open source driver for this card to us *nixers.

I use a Toshiba Satellite A215-7428, 2Gigs-RAM, ATI R1200 grahpics. It's as fast as a rocket on everything except high level grahpics.

Overall, Ubuntu is a great product like others already wrote. That is, when it works well out of the box. When you need to change things, fiddle with the system or customize standard settings, it can become quite troublesome to do so.

I agree with others that the package manager is probably one of the best out there (haven't seen any that can even compare to the one used by debian/ubuntu), the install is rather painless. However, when you run into problems, they can become next to impossible.

Due to the fact that Ubuntu adheres the Gnome philosophy (don't present users with unessesary options or difficult configurations) a bit too much at times, the more advanced user might find himself cornered by a too much closed 'predefined' system. I ran into quite a few of those limitations myself.

The package list is about the largest I've seen in a distro at this point and the forums are absolutely the best out there. It's just that I wish that someone would take the professional approach of some of the older distros (slackware, fedora, suse, etc.) and have those help Ubuntu out mature in areas where they are obviously still a bit immature.

Just some examples:
- Art is abysmal compared to other distros.
- Like I said, manual configuration is very limited and even being limited more with the upcoming release 8.04.
- Flexibility is lacking. If you want to configure a non default media player as the default one it is a real hassle to do so and in some cases even impossible. They tend to lean towards the 'windows' concept of thinking that they need to decide for the user what is best for him. I personally hate that type of approach and rather have to tinker a bit but be free to organize things the way I want to then being restricted to other people's choices that might not be mine.
- Menu organisation doesn't always make sense.
- A more detailed setup program wouldn't hurt either. Now one only enters language, keyboard and partitions and Ubuntu selects all the rest for you. This I consider to be a bit of a downside also. One should have the option to select packages upon install as well, now that's completely absent.

Like I said, when it works it works great, but when you have problems or want to do something that goes against its setup one can run into impossible hurdles with Ubuntu.

I've installed and used many flavors of Linux and UNIX over the past 5 years: Debian, Red Hat, SuSE, Mandriva, CentOS, Ubuntu, Solaris, etc. This is my 2nd time trying Ubuntu. The first time I was not near as impressed as I am with version 7.10.

Ubuntu 7.10 provides 2 download choices: a desktop version and a server version. If you don't know which version you need, then very likely you need the desktop version. If you need the server version, then I suggest you get CentOS instead.

My first attempt at installation failed to load the X server with no hint why. A noobie would have been lost at this point.

Avoid the problem I had with a simple step during the installation; prior to hitting Enter to Install Ubuntu, press the function key for VGA and then pick a conservative screen resolution from the presented list. I recommend 1024x768 as a safe choice unless your monitor is really old, then 640x480 is your choice.

Ubuntu seems to be designed for the complete noobie and it's a very friendly distro for someone switching from MS Windows.

Ubuntu wisely incorporates Add/Remove on its Applications menu. The folks at Ubuntu get it! That Program management is a major concern for anyone used to (spoiled by) Windows Add/Remove programs.

Someone complained that Ubuntu was slow. My experience was the complete opposite. Ubuntu ran very fast for me on a client's computer with an AMD Athlon 1.3Ghz w/512K RAM.

This is definitely the closest thing to a Windows killer of any Linux distribution I've used. Ubuntu provides you with very recent releases of the Linux kernel (the drive train under the hood) and very recent releases of application software. Installing Ubuntu, hardware support, adding and removing additional application software, and using the product, which Ubuntu installs, are the main reasons I praise Ubuntu as the best Windows killer I've seen to date.

Ubuntu smartly incorporated restricted software (Java runtime, Flash player, video drivers), that is software which is NOT open source, but rather closed code which requires the user's acceptance of a license agreement. In other distributions, installing the Java runtime, the Flash player, the proprietary video drivers (NVidia, for example), and such, can be quite a headache and cause some noobies to give up on Linux.

Switching from Windows? Try Ubuntu first. And make sure you try Ubuntu first, NOT Kubuntu, as there are a LOT of differences between GNOME (default desktop environment of Ubuntu) and KDE (default desktop environment of Kubuntu).

KDE has all the eye candy and gimmicks--it's definitely the showman of the two. However, KDE also has lots of issues that don't become apparent until you &quot;break it&quot; or encounter one of its many bugs. Those (interoperability) issues, bugs, and breakages usually bite you in the butt after a routine system update, where KDE or one of its apps is updated/upgraded. A system that was working well all of sudden is misbehaving after an update. That can be very frustrating. When KDE works it's great! When it breaks, you'll be pulling your hair out trying to fix it, which may cause you to give up on Linux and go back to Windows. That would be a real shame considering that reliability, stability, and simplicity IS available with Linux.

GNOME, on the other hand, is stable with a very clean and simplistic interface. I'll take what's under the hood over the paint job any day! There's a reason that IBM, Sun, HP, etc. all use GNOME not KDE in their commercial versions of UNIX. Wait till you're a seasoned, experienced Linux user--then take KDE for a drive. You may like it and never give GNOME another chance. But as a first time user, you deserve to see that there are very stable, clean versions of Linux available.

Try Ubuntu! Get ready to become a Linux convert and an ex-Windows user. Routine reboots and crashes(a la Windows) will become a thing of the past as you use an operating system which is designed to run non-stop day in and day out for years. Linux will have your computer running fast compared to that old slowpoke Windows. And then there's security. Guess what? If you pick up a virus on your travels around the net, it won't hurt your computer, because it's Windows code won't run on native Linux. No more anti-virus programs necessary. There are so many good reasons to switch from Windows to Linux (or even Mac, for that matter).

I hope I haven't overloaded you with too much information, but if I have and you're feeling confused, feel free to reply and I'll try and answer your questions and comments.

Extremely responsive online support, vast repositories, good for beginners through advanced, does everything I want to do including wireless

Cons:

dvd difficult to keep working between upgrades

The most responsive on-line forum I've experienced. Every problem I've had has been solved within 48 hours or less of posting a question. The DVD has been problematic. I've been able to get it work twice, but have since given up. So currently *everything* works beautifully, including wireless, sd reader cards, camera imports, internet, etc. except the CD/DVD. Highly recommended. If they could fix this one problem permanently, it would be the perfect distro for me.